Predator Snape
by teedub
Summary: With the help of Harry Potter, Severus Snape comes to realize his nature as a predator.


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money from this story.

I was walking towards my quarters for tea when I observed through a window Harry Potter playing in the snow with no gloves, hat or proper winter shoes. It was the Yule holiday of Potter's first year and he was alone amongst the 1st years in the castle. Fang, Hagrid's boarhound was bounding and prancing around the Potter brat, yowling in unholy glee and kicking up a right fuss in the fresh snow.

What on earth would induce a child to play in the snow without gloves at the very least? I had already labeled Potter a stupid, arrogant child from the first moment he arrived in the castle. Even before he arrived if I was to be honest and the time spent with Potter did little to change this opinion. Especially now, the child will get frostbite or pneumonia, a severe cold at the very least.

Not wanting to be held in any way responsible if the child did in fact fall ill, I decided to end Potter's snow play and give him a pepper-up potion along with a good harangue about proper clothing during the winter. A few reminders of his arrogance, "just like his father" would not go amiss either. Does he think the faculty has nothing better to do that baby-sit stupid children and protect them from their own foolishness? Never acknowledging that is in fact what faculty is for at a boarding school during the holidays.

"Potter!" I barked suddenly.

Oh, the pleasure to see him flinch, to see the fear I placed on his's face. It was like a fine wine but unlike a fine wine, I indulged in this pleasure daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I would never grow tired of it.

"Unless you can conjure a set of proper gloves and winter shoes this instant, you will follow me back to the castle. You might think you are invincible just because you're the Boy-Who-Lived but I will not have my time wasted by brewing specialty potions for the famous Potter just because he was too stupid to dress himself properly."

The boy followed me into the castle and I headed down to my quarters. Hearing Potter's footsteps slowing I turned around to berate and insult him some more when I caught a fleeting look of sheer panic and horror on his face before replacing it with his usual look of idiocy.

"What is the problem Potter? Unable to walk now as well?" I sneered at the boy.

"Where are we going sir? We have already passed your classroom and your office and the infirmary is on the 2nd floor" the brat asked with a scared tremble to his voice.

"We are going to my quarters so I may give you a potion to prevent any illness you might have caught with your foolish antics in the snow" deigning not to elaborate that with a hot cup of tea, the fireplace and pepper-up he would be dry, warm and illness free. If I just gave him the vial of potion, there is no guarantee he would go back to his dorm to change into dry and warmer clothes. Drying and warming charms would take care of that without going to my chambers and Madam Pomfrey is certainly capable of tending to a cold and wet 1st year, but this way would give me another opportunity to really have a go at him, in private with no witnesses. A totally captive audience for me to crush emotionally. I wonder how long it will take for me to make him cry. It will take years to break his spirit however.

The panic was back along with total cessation of movement. He looked like a statue. Unable to help myself, I skimmed Potter's thoughts:

_Predator! Run! Pedophile! He's going to drug you, must run, get away. It's just like the video's they showed us in primary school. Predators offer candy to small children to get them to follow the predator. He's offering me medicine that I don't need, I'm not sick. This is a trick, it's a lie. Snape hates me, he would never help me. This is a lie! No one else knows where I am. This some plot to get me alone to hurt me. It must be, Snape hates me. I still don't know why he hates me. It's because I have no parents, no adults to stick up for me. This is what the video said, the predators will choose their victims carefully. He must know about the Dursley's too. Do none of the teachers care? They don't. Snape doesn't treat anyone else as bad as me, except maybe Neville. Neville doesn't have parents. Oh god, he's a predator! How far along this corridor have we already traveled? I don't know how to get back to the entrance hall, I can't let him lock me in. Have to run! Think, how do I get back? He's going to hurt me, run! No one will believe me, adults always back up other adults. What am I going to do? Must get away from him, must hide the rest of the break. Can't let him get me alone, they always try to get you alone. Run! Find another teacher, he can't do anything in front of another teacher right? Oh god, he'll just give me detention in front of another adult, they'll just let it happen. I'm not safe here either. No one will protect me from snape, predators, Dursley's. I've got to get away! Leave Hogwarts, get to Gringotts, get money, run way, be safe. Can't stay here, Snape will hurt me, he might molest me, that's what predators do. No one will believe me, they never do. Can't go to the Dursley's, they would not care. They would be happy if a teacher hurt me. Not safe! Run! Run run run run…_

And with that, the brat bolted back the way we came. I was so shocked at his thoughts about the situation and myself that I didn't react quickly enough. He was out of sight before I knew it. I gave chase but the boy must have some experience in running away because there wasn't a sign of him.

I went to Minerva's office to report that one of her lion's is in the process of running away from the school and he's in a blind panic, not thinking rationally. Although, to give the boy credit, it was a totally rational thing to assume not all was on the up and up given my previous behavior toward him. He has very good situational awareness and used my momentary shock to make his escape. Very Slytherin in fact. None of that matters now. I will not be held responsible for chasing the BWL away from Hogwarts, only to find him frozen to death tomorrow morning. I'll be sent to Azkaban sooner than you can say predator.

The fact that I am a predator and he recognized it before I did – obviously from experience - has me unsettled. I always took pride in being a bastard, a cold-hearted sarcastic man with no patience for children. I revel in my power over the cretins. That I was labeled a predator of children makes me feel a bit ill. I never realized how far my bitterness has carried me, no matter that I'm no longer a death eater, on paper at least. That my intentions were to groom a child to fear me, to crush an orphan emotionally at the first opportunity I'm able to isolate him with the end result of breaking his spirit is testament that I still have the desires and inclinations of a Death Eater, and am particularly sick predator that goes after children. Looking back, I realize Potter was correct: I was and am particularly cruel to the orphans. I will have to contemplate this aspect of my personality later.

I tell Minerva that I cannot help in the search as I was the one that scared the child enough to run away. I'll just make the situation worse.

"What on earth did you do?" Minerva swells with righteous indignation.

"Later Minerva. You need to find the brat instead of wasting time on this interrogation. I didn't have to say anything and could have just let him run away. Now, do you want to know his identity so you can start searching and so I may leave for my tea?"

I tell her it's her precious BWL and she swells further and the look of sheer fury let's me know there will be a discussion later about these events, most likely with Albus. But the brat was right, adults stick together. I won't really get into any trouble no matter what happens. At most, Albus will give me his disappointed look but it's such a contrived look that is has no meaning for me other than insulting my intelligence. Does he think I'm that easy to emotionally manipulate? Please.

I can honestly say I was only trying to help and Potter, the idiot that he is, took a whole new meaning into my actions. The fact that I had groomed him from day 1 to fear me, to be wary of me is of no consequence. I will pass questioning under veritaserum easily. I'm totally free and clear.

Minerva notified Albus and the rest of the staff and they all get to searching. Albus asks me to give him any pertinent details as to where he might go. I tell him Gringotts and definitely not his relatives. Albus wants to question me further on that, but I remind him that times wasting and that due to Albus's own stupidity, the boy has an invisibility cloak and a head start. He requests and I give my memory of the event, though the memory won't indicate how I know he's running away and headed to Gringotts and definitely not the Dursley's.

I'll have to abbreviate Potter's thought process when I relay that bit of information. I'm starting to think that perhaps I won't get off scott free this time: they will want to know what it was that scared him so much that he would take such a drastic step as to run away. Ok, I can possibly see some probation and investigation into my teaching methods but I haven't ever touched the brat nor did I have any intentions of doing so, nothing truly serious will happen to me. So I'm a bad teacher that hates children, it's not as if I asked for this job. Albus forced me into it at the end of the last war and has threatened me with the full weight of the Wizengamot every time I've submitted my resignation. If he doesn't like it, he can finally free me from this prison.

Feeling better about the situation, I head to my chambers for the tea I've missed with all this bother over a stupid child running away. Perhaps I'll contemplate my nature as a predator. Though Potter and most polite society consider being a predator to be a bad thing, I'm feeling proud of the label. I'm not so proud of the fact that my prey happens to be orphaned children though. It leaves a sick taste in my mouth in that I see that I've turned into my father, a child abuser and a man not deserving of an ounce of respect. I decide I'll just have to find alternate prey in order to indulge my instincts. I really should not be in a school full of children that are effectively captive for nine months out of the year and that I have authority over. Especially considering I have Albus Dumbledore's protection from the rest of the staff, parents, and DMLE.

Enjoying my tea, I wonder how long it will take before Potter is found and indulge in fantasies of punishments I would dole out if I had not just decided to find alternate prey. I realize that even if he is found quickly, even if he doesn't divulge the reasoning behind running, I have to keep a careful distance and never let myself be alone with him ever again. I sigh at the lost detentions and make a note to warn Filch against employing his particular brand of abuse when he next has Potter, considering he's now a flight risk.

This has the potential to blow up in our faces, but I'm still confident that Potter was right: adults stick together and rarely believe anything a child says without overwhelming proof. Especially against another adult. Even then, adults tend to dismiss the child's concerns away when we don't want to deal with it and I realize that my reputation will actually serve me well. Albus has fielded hundreds of complaints against me in the last decade; this will just be another to add to the pile. The rest of the staff has been groomed to ignore complaints against me and to not take them seriously since Albus has assured them that teaching potions is dangerous and requires a firm hand in the classroom to prevent injuries. Maybe I can in fact indulge in some punishments against Potter after all, forgetting my previous decision to stay away from orphans, children, and especially Potter.

A/N: If anyone would like to continue this story, feel free. Just send me a link and give credit where credit is due.


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